What is Italian for Beginners Language Theatre? Is it a course or
a play? It’s both! We proudly present a one-of-a kind educational
program for beginners that includes vocabulary, grammar, exercises,
dialogue, and much more in the form of a theatrical performance!

The plot of the play is simple. Silvia, our Italian tutor, gives
one-on-one lessons to a beginner student, Connor. Silvia has three
rules for her student:

1. Complete the assigned lesson on the website and memorize new
vocabulary on the flashcards before coming in for one-on-one
studies.

2. You can talk about anything, as long as you employ grammar
introduced in the lesson.

3. Don't be afraid to switch to English if you don’t know how to
say something in Italian - but switch back to Italian as soon as
you can!

Follow our heroes from Act 1, with conversation mostly in English,
to Act 22, where they speak mostly Italian!

Together with Silvia's student, you will learn the fundamentals
of Italian grammar and expressions. Your vocabulary will expand
rapidly and naturally, and your comprehension skills will improve
dramatically.

Cari ascoltatori, come state? It’s me, your host Luigi, and I’m here to welcome you to a new installment of our show. So, what do you say, are you ready to enjoy Act 10? I see Connor is already at the door. Actually, I think he’s complaining about something… I wonder what’s bugging him… oh, wait, he’s telling Silvia that he’s feeling very tired today. He was up late, last night, playing briscola with nonno Giovanni and zio Peppino! Hmm, I bet he didn’t study much for today’s lesson! But you, my friends, don’t follow his example! Remember, our website offers a variety of tools designed to help you learn and explore the Italian language. Make time every week to study our grammar lessons. Take our quizzes and pronunciation exercises. This way, you’ll enjoy our dialogs even more!

I. Reflexive Verbs

A reflexive verb refers to an action which is performed on the subject of the verb. For example, in English the phrase He dresses himself is reflexive. The man doing the dressing is dressing himself.

In Italian, many verbs are explicitly reflexive, always using reflexive pronouns, whereas their English counterparts do not. The above sentence, He dresses himself can also be written He dresses. It is still a reflexive verb, but it does not use the reflexive pronoun. In Italian, however, the equivalent verb, vestirsi, must be conjugated with the reflexive pronoun: Si veste.

Reflexive verbs follow normal conjugation patterns. Their infinitive endings are -arsi, ersi, and irsi. In the following table, you can see how verbs from each of these infinitive endings are conjugated. Please note that the reflexive pronoun must be included in conjugation, but the standard pronoun does not. The reflexive pronouns and conjugated endings are in bold.

Volere è potere is a cross-cultural concept. It translates as vouloir est pouvoir in French, querer es poder in Spanish, and where there's a will there's a way in English.

Although we are not able to point to a specific source for this extremely popular idiomatic expression, it seems reasonable to acknowledge the echo of the Latin adage nihil volentibus arduum, which means nothing is impossible if you really want it.

Let's practice pronunciation on few short phrases from today's episode.
Listen carefully how the native speaker pronounces each sentence.
Follow the intonations in each sentence. When you are ready, record one
paragraph at a time with your own voice and then compare
your pronunciation and intonations to the native speaker's:

Wow, reflexive verbs, modal verbs... I feel like this installment was really instructive! Connor and Silvia dove into some really interesting grammar topics. And Silvia even managed to pick an idiomatic expression revolving around modal verbs for today’s show!

Connor is making great progress, cari amici, and I hope you are, too! As for me, I’m already looking forward to Act 11. Don’t forget to practice as much as you can over the coming days. See you soon. A presto!